Monthly Archives: January 2014

A deaf person using his hearing ear dog to help him withhis unusual, but dangerous job? Yes – as a truck driver!This job is dangerous for many reasons, and hearing truckdrivers must listen for noise and sounds while on theroad. Yes, deaf truck drivers deal with these samedangerous situations, using their eyes instead of theirears. But for one deaf truck driver, he uses his hearingear dog to alert him to noise and sounds. Seems he’s theonly deaf truck driver to use a hearing ear dog.

— a national network of deaf realtors

Jackie Roth, a deaf realtor in New York, who was profiledin DeafDigest a while ago, is slowly building up a networkof deaf realtors – to better serve the deaf that wantto buy or sell houses anywhere in USA. How good is thenetwork? So far, she has referred 15 deaf clients tothe network of 9 agents – resulting in seven deals,plus 3 more soon-to-be deals! It takes time to builda bigger network but this is a great start!

— Netflix still a joke in the Deaf Community

We have a love-hate relationship with Netflix. Theyare the best when it comes to a wide choice of videosto watch. They are the worst when it comes to captions.Netflix, after much arguing with us, has promised tocaption all of their videos. But the quality of theirvideos stinks! A national news website recentlyscolded Netflix for not doing much to improve thequality of their captions. Does Netflix care? Probablynot because their #1 worry is making more and moremoney!

It was just learned that Derrick Coleman is not theonly deaf participant on Super Bowl Day! There isanother one. The surprise participant is Aurora,who is described as very, very smart, and acts asa diva wide receiver, very quick with moves andnot afraid of opponents. Huh! It is a deafliver-spotted Dalmatian puppy that will play in thePuppy Bowl that is always shown on Super Bowl Day.She is the first deaf puppy to take part in theBowl – the same as with Derrick Coleman. Will adeaf family adopt deaf Aurora? Anyway, do watchthe Puppy Bowl. It is always good for laughs!

— IRS stops offering free tax preparation services for the deaf

In the past IRS offices gave free tax preparation services fordeaf tax payers. No more. Why? The IRS spokesperson saidthat too few deaf tax payers have used these free servicesin the past. Is it scary for the deaf that need help withtax preparations? Well, there are some deaf social serviceagencies that help with tax preparations. It is just thatthe deaf must be made aware of these services. Do we havedeaf tax preparers? Yes, but the same thing – the deafmust know who these preparers are – and also, these servicesare not free.

— university ASL club in a different activity

Many high schools and colleges offer ASL classes for theirhearing students. Some students take ASL and deaf issuesseriously; others don’t, just hoping to get an easy 4.0 gradeout of it. But for Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas,there is a nice twist to their ASL class. The students workedwith other campus organizations and the Habitat for Humanityto build a home for a deaf woman and her family! OtherASL classes won’t do it, but at the Texas university, theydid!

Looking for Derrick and his #40 jersey at the Super Bowl?Click on http://www.nfl.com/inactives before the gamestarts to make sure he is playing; eight Seahawks playerswill be inactive for the game; coaches always make lastminute roster moves. If Derrick plays, look for him onSpecial Teams because he really plays very little onoffense. Will he be made active? He played 12 games and2 playoff games this season, missing four games. So, willhe definitely play? While newspaper stories on him have beenheavy, DeafDigest thinks coach Carroll will activate himfor the game because he is best with the Special Teams.

— music industry not wanting deaf to attend musical events?

Do the music people in Great Britain avoid selling tickets todeaf musical lovers? There was a story in a British newspapersaying that online reservations for musical events are notaccessible to the deaf. And by not being accessible to thedeaf and the disabled, it has cost the industry approximately2.5 million tickets, valued at $110 million dollars annually!A group of mystery shoppers tried out these online reservationsystems and the came out saying the system stinks for the deaf!

— these messed up CART assignments

DeafDigest editor asked a friend, who is deaf and is anattorney if he had CART problems. He said that sometimesCART reporters are stuck in bad traffic. Sometimes CARTequipment does not work – an example would be a set ofdead batteries! When that happens, there is nothing thedeaf attorney could do about it!

A popular TV reality program is The Amazing Race.The 2014 edition will start on February 23rd.One of the returning teams is the Maggie O.Donnell-Luke Adams team which excited the nation in thepast. While mother Maggie is hearing, son Luke is deaf.

— deaf fan knows Super Bowl trivia and facts

Kavin Caruso, a deaf resident of Atlanta, is aSuper Bowl fan and also a Super Bowl trivia whiz.Who won the Super Bowl in 1976? What was the dateof the 1984 Super Bowl? Which TV network airedthe 1994 Super Bowl? What college did the 1971Super Bowl MVP attend? Kavin knows them all.Not just the Super Bowl, but also the pastTV programs, past musicals, past actors as wellas with other different sports. His goal is toattend a community college to study bookkeepingin hopes of finding a job in that field.

— deaf may not see some Super Bowl commercials!

Many of us will watch the Super Bowl on TV. For someof them, they are only interested in the commercialsand not the game itself! They want to know whichcommercials are captioned and which are not. Well,in Canada, it may be different. There was a storygoing today on that some TV broadcasters in Canadawould not show American commercials, instead, usingtheir own commercials! And that these commercialswitches have been going on for years. Who knows,could some deaf Canadians drive to nearby Americantowns just to watch these Super Bowl captioned(and non-captioned) commercials?

At a London hospital, deaf mother Nadia Hassan gave birth; theinterpreter during the birth was her 12-year old daughter HulusiBati. The family was very angry about it. The hospital saidthere was no time to find a last minute interpreter becauseof the birth complications. The daughter, while knowing basicsign language, was not able to interpret these complicatedmedical words. And even worse, when the mother and the babystayed at the hospital for one week for medical follow ups,the interpreter was not available most of the time.

— HUD allows deaf to live in deaf subsidized housing

The Apache ASL Trails in Arizona, subsidized by the Housingand Urban Development, is now allowed to have 100 percent deafresidents. This was always the goal of the Apache ASL Trails,but the HUD didn’t like it because it discriminated againsthearing residents. After two years of legal dispute with theApache ASL Trails officials, the HUD gave up.

— Paralympics treats deaf like second class citizens?

The International Paralympic Committee always wanted tocontrol the Deaflympics. We have refused because we areable bodied, and that we are able to compete with hearingathletes on equal terms. The most recent Paralympicstook place in 2012 in London. Past Deaflympics presidentCraig Crowley, who is deaf, told the BBC Sportshourpeople during a TV talk show interview that deaf were treatedlike second class citizens during that 2012 Paralympics.This accusation was quickly denied by the Paralympicsofficials, but DeafDigest thinks Crowley was correct.